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During the past several decades, political philosophers have frequently clashed with one another over the question whether governments are morally required to remain neutral among reasonable conceptions of excellence and human flourishing. Whereas the numerous followers of John Rawls (andkindred philosophers such as Ronald Dworkin) have maintained that a requirement of neutrality is indeed incumbent on every system of governance, other philosophers - often designated as "perfectionists" - have argued against the existence of such a requirement. Liberalism with Excellence entersthese debates not by plighting itself unequivocally to one side or the other, but instead by reconceiving each of the sides and thus by redirecting the debates that have occurred between them.On the one hand, the book rejects the requirement of neutrality by contending that certain subsidies for the promotion of excellence in sundry areas of human endeavour can be proper and vital uses of resources by governments. Advocating such departures from the constraint of neutrality, the bookpresents a version of liberalism that can rightly be classified as "perfectionist". On the other hand, the species of perfectionism espoused in Liberalism with Excellence diverges markedly from the theories that have usually been so classified. Indeed, much of the book assails various aspects ofthose theories. What is more, the aspirational perfectionism elaborated in the closing chapters of the volume is reconcilable in most key respects with a suitably amplified version of Rawlsianism. Hence, by reconceiving both the perfectionist side and the neutralist side of the prevailingdisputation, Liberalism with Excellence combines and transforms their respective insights.

About The Author

Matthew H. Kramer is Professor of Legal and Political Philosophy at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge. He is Director of the Cambridge Forum for Legal and Political Philosophy, and has been a Fellow of the British Academy since 2014. He is the author of
14 previous books and the co-editor of 4 add...

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Table of Contents

Part I: Introduction1. Toward the Redirection of a Longstanding ControversyPart II: Liberal Neutralism2. One Cheer for Edificatory Perfectionism: An Arm's-Length Defense of Edificatory Perfectionism against Some Rawlsian Objections3. The Illusion of Neutrality: Abortion and the Foundations of Justice4. Too Much from Too Little: A Critique of Gerald Gaus's Libertarian NeutralismPart III: Edificatory Perfectionism5. Edificatory Perfectionism and the Quality of Freedom6. The Quidnunc Mentality of Edificatory PerfectionismPart IV: Aspirational Perfectionism7. Self-Respect in Rawls's Liberalism8. Perfectionism in the Service of Justice9. The Implementation and Import of Aspirational Perfectionism